How to FINALLY go Paperless — In Celebration of Earth Day 2019

By Spike Team, September 09, 2019

Welcome to the office of the future! Where the air is clean, the coffee fresh, and the atmosphere is stress-free and friendly. Where your flying car shuttles you to and from work, way above the rush hour traffic. Where your robotic secretary never forgets to schedule an appointment, and an army of four-wheeled assistants do all the leg work. Where productivity, efficiency, and a general sense of utopian well-being go hand-in-hand. Anything is possible in the workplace of tomorrow!

The beautiful thing with retrofuturism is the joy of hindsight. There’s a whole host of forgotten possibilities. Some of them utterly outlandish, and others more banal. Take the paperless office for example. Everyone thought it was joyously inevitable when first referenced in 1964, and yet, we’ve never quite achieved this simplest of ideals. Worse still, the rise of cheap printers and fax machines in the 1980s actually doubled the use of paper in offices around the world. One step forward, two steps back.

Today, however, finally making the leap to a truly paperless office is about much more than embracing new tech. It’s about the environment. Sadly, despite the rise of futuristic touch screens and computers small enough to fit in your pocket, our reliance on paper is growing faster than ever before. In fact, it is estimated that global consumption has risen by 400% in the last 40 years. To make matters worse, it is thought that the equivalent of 1 billion trees worth of paper is trashed each year.

We’re in the midst of a global crisis, and we are very quickly realizing that our levels of consumption and reluctance to recycle is having devastating effects on the planet. Paperless businesses then, are more important than ever before. So, since April 22nd marksEarth Day—the largest environmental movement dedicated to solving climate change, ending plastic pollution, and protecting endangered species, we thought it high time to help you and your office finally go paperless (for real this time!).

Get a Better Email Solution

Of course you use email. Who doesn’t? In fact, email was among the big technological advances that made those silicon seers dream about a truly paperless office. However, a bit like those starry-eyed retro-futurist predictions of the 60s, email never quite lived up to its potential. It got a little lost along the way. To the point that people actually started PRINTING emails. Unbelievable right? But no doubt we’re all guilty of that little faux pas!

Spike is here to change that. And we’re here to usher in a whole new era of the paperless office. Spike combines the best paperless productivity tools with everything you need to communicate efficiently and effectively. We call it Conversational Email. And you’ll never need to print another email again.

We’ve ditched the conventional email formatting in favor of something more dynamic. It’s like your favorite instant messenger app but with all the functionality of email. If you need to reference the contents of a message, everything is laid out clearly and intuitively so it’s easy to read on-screen. PLUS, you can archive and search all your important documents digitally directly within the app. Who needs paper anyway?

Share Your Files with Cloud Storage

The advent of cloud storage is one of the truly great paperless technologies. Gone are the days where you need to pass around hard copies of documents. No more printing induction manuals, contract drafts, article proofs, website layouts, and anything else you can think of. You just drop your files in your cloud drive, and everyone will have both read and write access. Apart from the reams of paper you’ll save, cloud sharing boosts efficiency in a variety of ways. You won’t need to fax, mail, or courier documents to other locations, and of course, you won’t have to spend long hours “encouraging” the printer to work!

Use More Screens

Tech-heads are going to love this one, and anyone who has spent a life with a reference document in one hand and a mouse in the other will find a whole new sense of freedom. A separate monitor (or even tablet) allows you to keep your reference document on one screen and your work on another. And the best news? Spike is fully integrated with the cloud so you can simply grab your document from either your email or your favorite cloud storage provider. Once you have it, simply drag & drop the window containing your doc to the extra screen. It’s been shown toimprove productivity and it’ll also save you tons of paper in the long run.

Close the Book on Your Scheduler and Use Calendar

Paper-based schedulers are so last century. They’re messy, heavy, and there’s always a chance you’ll leave it on your desk as you rush out to an important meeting. There’s plenty of calendar apps out there, but for a truly innovative paperless organization and scheduling system, give Spike a whirl. By combining your email with your calendar we’ve put your two most important tools right where you need them. You can easily combine calendars from multiple email addresses, and you’ll never have to worry about having your pen and schedule again. As part of Spike,Calendar is available on smartphone, tablet, desktop, and in your web browser.

Ditch the Printer (and the Fax)

Temptation is a terrible thing. So why not just remove it from the office entirely! Ditch the printer, and if you still have one, the fax machine and encourage everyone to get on board with the new paperless business revolution. Next up? Introduce a few solar-powered robotic assistants and you’ll have the perfect green office. Just remember to email those all-important operation manuals. Don’t print them!